
Headlinings
Over the years we have seen a lot of temporary solutions, one gentleman wore a hat to push up the headlining, a headlining board full of thumb tacks, a Mitsubishi Sigma had a metal trim that held the board in place, he used little thin strips of wood and hooked then on the metal trim to hold the lining up it was quite well done, another one is to cut out the lining and just have the board exposed, which is ok as long small children, who use their finger on the board write their name and draw pictures even games of nought and crosses, unfortunately the down side is the small children are inhaling the foam partials, by the way it not just the little children the draw picture on the board, sometimes it the big children, but one of the worst one’s which is more common is using glue from a tube and blobbing glue on the board, what happens is when the board is removed for replacing the lining the blob of glue has soaked in to the board making a large bump which will show up on new lining, we use a sharp blade to remove as much of the lump from the board without damaging the board.
Here are a couple photographs of cars with the headlining fabric dropping, just prior to having the headlining replaced, the headlining board is removed from the car, then the headlining fabric is removed and disposed of, some customers ask do we use the old fabric the answer is no , all remnants of the foam are removed from the headlining board, a new Headlining fabric replaced using a heat resistant contact adhesive, on the original headlining the fabric is cut on the edge of the Headlining board, this is one of the first areas where the headlining start to drop, we wrap the end of the lining the edge about 30 to 40 mm to stop the front from ever dropping at the and rear the headlining is reinstalled in the car and all the light fitting, grab handles, door rubbers seat belt anchor points and sun visors are reinstalled.
This is a Mini before and after headlining replacement as you can see the headlining is coming away from the board, you can also see in pictures the lining had been replaced, with a new velour lining.We do get asked can we reglue the old lining back up short answer is no, the lining has come away from the headlining board, because the foam is disintegrating, and has turned into a powder, some people will notice a yellow bit around areas where the lining has come lose, if you use a spray contact to reglue the lining to the board, it might last a day or two maybe a week but you are only contacting to the disintegrating foam on the board and there is a little layer on the lining, so eventually foam will separate again and the headlining comes back down.